Taiwan: Taipei

After a twelve year absence, I was overwhelmed with the thought of going back to Taiwan. Except I wasn't really going back to any Taiwan I knew. Mark's parents had arranged for us to spend most of our time in Taipei City, which I've never actually stepped foot in before, planned to take us to Hualien in Eastern Taiwan, which I've never been to, and the aunt who I usually stay with in Kaohsiung has since immigrated to the U.S. In fact, I was going to spend very little time with my side of the family, and almost every waking moment with either Mark's parents, extended family or high school friends. So even though I was excited about rediscovering Taiwan, I had absolutely no control over how I would do it. This was not ideal, but at least the housing was free.

The food situation in Taiwan is even more intense than in Tokyo or Hong Kong. So food is going to have to be the topic of another blog entry altogether. Let's just start with the sights: in Taipei.

We arrived at 5am Taiwan time, and were driven straight to Mark's aunt's house. After a few hours of eating, announcing our safe arrival to parents and siblings in the U.S., and arranging to meet friends in Taipei, we headed out to start sightseeing. First stop: Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial.

Front gate to the plaza

Beautiful grounds

National Theater

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

Chiang was apparently a fan of American cars

Chiang (wax figure) in his office

There were stalls selling books outside, and Mark was unnaturally delighted (he's not usually this nerdy, is he?) to find a Chinese translation of a series of programming language books he uses.

After a day of hanging out with Mark's parents and relatives, we were finally dropped off at our Taipei digs. Mark's older cousin (all of his cousins are older ... quite a bit older) generously offered us the comforts of his newly renovated 3-bedroom house in Taipei, currently home to his daughter, Peggy.

Peggy's dad lives in Kaohsiung (in a much bigger house), and Peggy wasn't home for our first couple of days in Taipei, so we had the place to ourselves, which you can imagine was a relief after a day ... not alone.

The next day, we were free to explore more of Taipei with Mark's high school friends. After some relaxation and a lot of good food (to be discussed later), we headed to Taiwan's National Palace Museum, the largest collection of ancient Chinese artifacts.

Front gate

Main building

The ticket had a handy guide to the various Chinese Dynasties on the back.

A methodical, informative tour guide took us through the museum at breakneck speed, hitting all the highlights, including the jadeite cabbage and the meat-shaped stone (no pictures of the exhibits allowed). He clearly favors bronzes, so much so that we almost ditched him before getting to the jade and ceramic pieces. But we didn't, we stuck with him the entire hour and a half, and it was well worth it. He skipped the paintings to save time, mumbling something about how there isn't much for him to say about the techniques, of which he had a lot to say regarding the bronze, jade, ceramic, lacquer and enamel pieces. Our feet were already hurting by the end of the tour, so we did not stick around afterward to peruse the paintings ourselves. It'll be a good excuse to go back again.

The gang after the tour: tired, but happy.

We took the train down to Kaohsiung and back, and then again to Hualien and back, so we got to know the Taipei Railway Station pretty well.

Old-school board

The traffic was not as insane as it used to be, but still somewhat insane nonetheless. It's all those darn scooters!

We passed by the East Gate every time to and from the train station.

One of the newest and most iconic sights in Taipei today is Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world for six years, and maybe the only thing young Americans know about Taiwan.

While a lot of what Taipei 101 has to offer relates to food (see later entry), it also offers top-notch shopping, and on good days, far-reaching views.

A very large international bookstore

many levels of shopping

When we got to the ticket counter, we were warned the weather was not good and we wouldn't see much when we got to the top. Remembering the typhoon-like thunder showers that started right when we arrived, we opted not to waste our money (even though we saw others going regardless of the weather warning). Besides, they had this beautiful, artistic rendering of Taipei 101 and its environs for us to admire, and from what we've heard about the view (lots and lots of tin roofs), even if the weather were ideal, this was probably better.

So we opted for some recovery time at the Osim store.
This was way beyond Brookstone and Sharper Image (although I understand Brookstone offers some Osim products in the U.S. now). These people know how to make a full body massage chair, including massaging your arms and hands.

Taiwan also is second only to Japan in access to geothermal hot springs, and lucky enough, Mark's friend Charles happened to have a bathtub with direct access to hot springs water.

And they aren't kidding when they say hot springs! Even adding copious amounts of cold water (not ideal since you're diluting the sulfurous spring water), it was still scalding, such that I could dip maybe for five minute periods with ten minute breaks in between. Yikes!

Finally, towards the end of our stay, we finally got the chance to ride the MRT.

Apart from being the cleanest I've ever seen, the cars had hanging, overhead handles that were my height! Look at my bent arms! First. Time. Ever.

We went to see my Uncle Cannon. Despite the late hour, he took us across the street from his house to a popular shopping mall, apparently a popular meeting place for young folk.

It housed the Eslite bookstore, a favorite hangout for the jetlagged (and lots others) because it is open 24-hours. Brilliant. At 10pm on a Tuesday night, it was busier than any bookstore in the U.S. at any hour.


We found ourselves on the last day in Taipei scrambling to fit in just a couple more sights. The Grand Hotel for starters.

The current main display in the lobby is this amazing orchid plant.

Finally, Longshan (Dragonmount) Temple. Buddhism and Taoism all rolled into one temple. Common?

We were interested in the pretty stuff.

Everyone else was interested in praying, intently, for anything and everything. The front here is where you pray to the Buddhist deities, and behind it you can pray to various Taoist deities, or so I was told.

And that's just the sights ... in Taipei.